Substantial Classrooms

Transform Your School’s Substitute Teaching Experience

Just like everything else, substitute teaching is about to undergo a big change. In Substantial Classrooms: Redesigning the Substitute Teaching Experience, authors Jill Vialet and Amanda von Moos usher in a new era of innovation in substitute teaching. Threaded with concrete and actionable ways to improve the experience of substitute teaching for administrators, students, and the teachers themselves, Substantial Classrooms is a leading voice for innovation and renewal in substitute teaching. Instead of viewing substitute teachers as a placeholder in an educator’s absence, this book encourages readers to view substitute teachers as vital resources that diversify the typical classroom learning experience. While other books look only at making a bad situation bearable, this book re-examines substitute teaching with an eye towards reinventing it as a unique and valuable part of students’ educational experience.

Key themes of Substantial Classrooms include:

• How substitute teaching works today
• Applying human-centered design to create change in legacy systems like substitute teaching
• Concrete and inspiring examples of different models for substitute teaching, for example, reimagining it as paid fieldwork for aspiring teachers.
• In addition to these key themes, every chapter includes stories and techniques from dynamic and innovative educational practitioners.

This must-have guide to substitute teaching can improve schools everywhere and revolutionize the way educators, school and district leaders, colleges, and community partners view the experience of substitute teaching as a lever to positively impact schools.

Foreword by Dr. Susie Wise 10

Introduction 14

How We Got Here 16

What’s Ahead 18

Building Empathy: Parallel Journeys 20

How Substitute Teaching Works Today 32

Surprising Stats 34

Who Are Substitute Teachers? 36

Requirements to be a Sub 37

The Need for Subs 41

Substitute Teaching as a System 46

Outsourcing 50

The Impact of Uneven Coverage 51

What Happens in the Classroom 53

Why Isn’t Substitute Teaching Receiving More Attention? 55

The Four Defining Characteristics of Substitute Teaching 58

Takeaways 61

Start Where You Are 62

What Matters: Subs Coming Back 64

Language Matters 68

Building Relationships at the School Level 69

Sub Plans, Every Time 71

Build Schoolwide Practices 73

Small Things That Make a Difference 75

Why Focus on it? It Works 78

Building Relationships at the District Level 79

Small Things That Make a Difference 87

Takeaways 89

Design Lab 90

What is Design Thinking? 92

Doing Design Work—Our Basic Cycle 96

Key Mindsets 104

Design Principles 108

Substantial Classrooms: Redesigning the Substitute Teaching Experience 9

Developing an Idea: Steps Along the Way 113

Journey of an Idea: SubPlans 121

Takeaways 126

Opportunities 128

The Heart of the Opportunity: Under-utilized Student Time 129

Why These Ideas 131

Meet the Innovators 132

The Art of the Hack 133

Go Forth and Innovate! 133

Opportunity: Reimagine Substitute Teaching as a Full-Time Fellowship 135

Opportunity: Part-Time Jobs for College Students 140

Opportunity: Community Talent 145

Opportunity: Teacher Pre-Service 151

Opportunity: District Teacher Pipeline 155

Opportunity: After-School Staff 159

Emerging Opportunities 163

Takeaways 167

The Commencement Chapter 168

Resources 172

Design Moves Playbook 173

Getting Ready for a Substitute Teacher: Sample Lesson Plan 188

Resource Guide: Learning About Design Thinking 192

Resource Guide: Research on Substitute Teaching 196

Books Referenced 203

Acknowledgments 204

About the Authors 206

Index 207

JILL VIALET and AMANDA VON MOOS are the Co-founders of Substantial, a nonprofit organization focused on redesigning the way schools and districts recruit, train, and support substitute teachers.

A FRESH LOOK AT THE UNTAPPED POTENTIAL OF SUBSTITUTE TEACHING

For decades, substitute teaching has been an afterthought, stuck in an unhappy equilibrium. Substantial Classrooms sheds much-needed light on the subject, offering fresh insights and actionable strategies for reimagining substitute teaching as a valuable asset both to the school and to students’ educational experience. Applying a new perspective to the challenge of substitute teaching, this innovative book identifies opportunities for improving the experience for administrators, students, and faculty in a range of educational settings.

Offering educators an opportunity to reexamine the nature of substitute teaching, Substantial Classrooms: Redesigning the Substitute Teaching Experience is a much-needed resource for anyone looking to infuse innovation and renewal in the substitute teaching space.

“Substantial Classrooms is an engaging and inspiring look at an aspect of the educational system—substitute teaching—that has gone unexamined for too long. Amanda and Jill have not only done the work to prove you can jump in and turn small hacks into surprising, systemic change—they’ll radically alter how you see substitute teaching.”
—ARNE DUNCAN, Former U.S. Secretary of Education

“By effectively applying design thinking to the broad-spectrum educational challenges that surround substitute teaching, Substantial is opening new pathways to collaboration, innovation, and truly significant change.”
—DAVID KELLEY, Founder, IDEO and Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design

“Substantial Classrooms is the first book I’ve seen that takes an optimistic and practical look at how substitute teaching can be a positive, and integral, part of teaching our next generation. I can imagine that a lot of people will initially hesitate before cracking a book on subbing, but I can assure you, if you’re looking for encouragement—and answers—Substantial Classrooms is the place to start.”
—ELLEN MOIR, Founder, New Teacher Center